Quaderni dell'Istituto Liszt

Alle origini del ‘virtuosismo moderno’

Sara Andreacchio — 2026-08-18

During his lifetime, Francesco Pollini (Ljubljana, 1762 – Milan,1846) was recognized both as a highly skilled pianist and as a respected composer. His piano method, published by Ricordi in 1812, remained a key pedagogical reference at the Milan Conservatory for decades, while his piano works garnered some international recognition and critical attention.
Franz Liszt was among those who acknowledged Pollini’s contribution to the development of early nineteenth-century piano virtuosity. Drawing on both Liszt’s letters and his critical writings, this article reconstructs the role attributed by Liszt to Pollini as the initiator of a ‘new school’ of piano playing, in which virtuosity is directed toward expression rather than pursued for its own sake. This perspective is set within broader nineteenth-century debates on instrumental virtuosity and the need to reconnect it with spiritual and artistic content, a theme to which Liszt also contributed in his writings of the 1830s and 1840s. An analysis of selected works by Pollini – most notably the Scherzo variazioni e fantasia op. 56 (1830) and the Esercizj in forma di toccata notated on three staves (1820, 1832) – highlights the features of his piano writing that likely impressed the young Liszt. These include multilayered textures, the expansion of accompaniment figures across the entire keyboard, the consistent prominence of the cantabile line, and the transformation of the piano étude from a technical exercise into a composition with full aesthetic autonomy. In this light, Pollini emerges as a discreet yet decisive figure in the evolution of nineteenth-century piano virtuosity, whose legacy Liszt both recognized and carried forward.

https://www.lim.it/it/quaderni-dellistituto-liszt/7089-quaderni-dell-istituto-liszt-24-9788855434935.html#/2-tipo_prodotto-libro

Una parafrasi in società

Elisa Nericcio — 2026-08-18

The article follows Franz Liszt’s Réminiscences de Lucia di Lammermoor through the streets, theatres and salons of nineteenth-century Milan. Starting from his first meeting with Giovanni Ricordi in 1837 and the stay in Milan and Bellagio with Marie d’Agoult, it reconstructs the milieu in which Liszt moved: the Teatro alla Scala and its ambivalent reception, the private musical gatherings, and the network of aristocratic salons that helped turn the young virtuoso into a social and artistic attraction. Within this framework, Casa Ricordi emerges not only as a publisher, but as an active mediator, using advertisements, dedications and editorial choices to shape Liszt’s Italian presence. The central part of the study is devoted to the genesis and textual history of the Réminiscences: the autograph held at the Archivio Ricordi, the first Ricordi, Bernard Latte and Hofmeister editions, and the alternative ossia passage that resurfaced at a Sotheby’s auction in 2012. The comparison between these sources shows how Liszt continued to adjust the piece, treating the paraphrase less as a fixed ‘reduction’ and more as an open text, especially at points of greatest dramatic tension. The final section reads the work from within, focusing on its dramaturgy and pianistic writing. Built around the Act II sextet Chi mi frena in tal momento, the piece moves away from literal transcription and turns Donizetti’s materials into a free dramatic fantasia, rich in orchestral allusions and virtuosic writing that serves the narrative rather than mere display. In this light, the Réminiscences appear as a meeting point between operatic memory, virtuoso culture and social music-making, and as a lens through which Milan’s role in the European construction of Liszt’s image and in the circulation of his opera paraphrases becomes particularly clear.

https://www.lim.it/it/quaderni-dellistituto-liszt/7089-quaderni-dell-istituto-liszt-24-9788855434935.html#/2-tipo_prodotto-libro

Il Präludium und Fuge über den Namen BACH di Franz Liszt

Olga Laudonia — 2026-08-18

This contribution presents an analysis of Franz Liszt’s Präludium und Fuge über den Namen BACH S. 260, drawing upon the C.F. Peters edition (no. 3628b, Orgelwerke, vol. II) edited by Karl Straube, which is the most frequently performed version in the organ repertoire. The thematic material utilised by the composer encompasses the BACH motif, a motif in fourths, and two elements closely related to the BACH motif: the diminished F# chord and chromaticism. In consideration of the intricate harmonic character of the composition, the present study endeavours to furnish the reader with a proposed interpretative key thereby emphasising the interconnections and the underlying logic of the musical composition.

https://www.lim.it/it/quaderni-dellistituto-liszt/7089-quaderni-dell-istituto-liszt-24-9788855434935.html#/2-tipo_prodotto-libro

Ruines. Il primo movimento della Fantasie op. 17 di Schumann nelle registrazioni dal 1905 al 1953

Anna Quaranta — 2026-08-18

This article reconstructs the early reception history of Robert Schumann’s Fantasie op. 17 and examines almost the entire body of its known recordings produced up to 1953. The study analyses eleven performances of the first movement, including two reproducing piano rolls: the Welte-Mignon roll recorded by Teresa Carreño in 1905 and an unpublished roll by Ossip Gabrilowitsch, recorded for Hupfeld between 1913 and 1921 and preserved in the collection of the Department of Musicology at the University of Pavia-Cremona. The selected interpretations span several generations of pianists, from early figures such as Carreño, Gabrilowitsch, and Adelina De Lara, to performers born in the late nineteenth century (Backhaus, Fischer, Nat, Mojsejevič), around the turn of the century (Judina, Rehberg, Horowitz), and into the early twentieth century (Richter). Together, these recordings situate the Fantasie firmly within the so-called ‘golden age’ of piano performance and document the vitality of major pianistic traditions associated with Clara Wieck, Franz Liszt, and Theodor Leszetycki. The analyses demonstrate a pronounced degree of interpretative individuality across all performances, reflecting the work’s fantastical and passionate nature, while alternately privileging its dreamlike or energetic dimensions. More broadly, the study provides new evidence supporting recent scholarship on historical recordings and performance practice, confirming that a recognisably “modern” approach to pianistic interpretation only crystallised around the mid-twentieth century.
Prior to this shift, Romantic and late-Romantic performers consistently pursued expressive freedom, frequently diverging from the written score in ways that cannot be fully reconstructed from treatises and pedagogical sources alone. Expressive devices such as dislocation, arpeggiation, and various forms of tempo rubato remained central to pianistic practice, even when explicitly discouraged in contemporary theoretical literature. Only in the 1950s did a modernist aesthetic decisively prevail, characterised by stricter synchronisation of voices, increased textual fidelity, and a more regularised conception of tempo.

https://www.lim.it/it/quaderni-dellistituto-liszt/7089-quaderni-dell-istituto-liszt-24-9788855434935.html#/2-tipo_prodotto-libro